Friday, January 17, 2014

Thailand's seafood exports are the third most valuable in the world, supplying markets in the US, Europe and Asia but far from the attention of consumers vulnerable migrants in search of a better future are being trafficked, exploited, abused and even murdered aboard Thai fishing vessels.

If most people think human trafficking is all about sexual exploitation, the mistake is understandable. After all, last year’s
State Department report on trafficking
noted that 85 percent of prosecutions for this crime worldwide — and
more than 89 percent of convictions — were for sex-related offenses.
But, as an International Labor Organization study
found in 2012, more than three-quarters of trafficking victims in the
global private economy are exploited for labor. And the world is just
starting to learn how much of this is tied to fishing.
Yes, fishing.

Not some reality TV show about stout-hearted seafarers, but the
grim world of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Vessels engaged in illegal, unregulated fishing not only steal precious
food resources off the coasts of poor countries, engage in drug
smuggling and damage marine ecosystems — they also prey on human beings,
trapping workers on boats as slaves.

For purposes of indictment, it is hard to beat a conclusion in a 2011 paper by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime:
“Perhaps the most disturbing finding of the study was the severity of
the abuse of fishers trafficked for the purpose of forced labor on board
fishing vessels. These practices can only be described as cruel and
inhumane treatment in the extreme. . . . A particularly
disturbing facet of this form of exploitation is the frequency of
trafficking in children in the fishing industry.”

As it happens,
when it comes to IUU fishing, Congress has an opportunity to make a real
difference in preventing this harsh treatment of workers who had no
idea how they would be trapped at sea.
And it need not cost any money.
All legislators have to do is ratify and implement an international
agreement.

Yet that
is far from the whole story.
Fishing boats are much less carefully
regulated than other ships: Because fishing vessels are not required to
have identification numbers, enormous ships are known to change names
and flags of registration to stay a step ahead of authorities.Interpol issued two worldwide alerts
last year for vessels that had done just that.
Fishing vessels are not
required to carry satellite transponders, which makes it easy for them
to evade surveillance.
Moreover, enforcement actions have traditionally
been left to the states where the boats are registered, or “flagged,”
rather than the “port” states where they bring their cargo to shore,
where they would be more likely to be caught doing something illegal.

The
combination of lax enforcement and the ability to escape detection has
proved irresistible to criminals, who use IUU fishing as cover for other
illicit activities.
For instance, a State Department report noted that drug smuggling is often aided by fishing boats moving drugs through the Bahamas, Jamaica and Florida.

But
the human-trafficking dimension is worse, amounting to a form of modern
slavery that traps laborers on the high seas, far from the reach of law
enforcement.
Fortunately, this is an issue that members of both
political parties have shown they care about.

In 2000, with
bipartisan support, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act, which defines trafficking for purposes of labor or sex and provides
critical elements for the protection of victims, as well as prevention
and prosecution.

The law was reauthorized last March, again with broad bipartisan endorsement.
Meanwhile, in 2009 U.S. officials signed the Port States Measures Agreement.
This pact, which the Senate has yet to ratify, could address IUU
fishing by strengthening port inspection procedures.
Only nine countries
have ratified the agreement, and the United States could provide
forceful leadership.
Congress could also pass the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act,
which was backed by members of both parties when it was first
introduced in 2011 and which would implement the international
agreement.

Steps should be taken toward ending every form of human
trafficking. “Trafficking” may sound like it refers to crossing
borders, but it means turning people into commodities, robbed of
autonomy.
Stopping illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing will do
far more than save marine ecosystems; it will save human beings. Links :